Table Tennis England is planning a new initiative to get more young people to take up table tennis – and is asking clubs, leagues and coaches for their input.

The programme will be aimed at attracting more seven-to-11-year-olds into the sport through clubs, leagues and schools.

The central aims will be:

To provide young people with an inspiring, engaging and fun first experience in the sport

To enable us to build national partnerships with organisations that can help take the sport to more young people

To provide clubs and coaches with a more attractive programme to take into schools and community groups to enhance a table tennis offer

To engage new young coaches/activators in the sport

It will be a national initiative and we want as many clubs and leagues as possible up and down the country to get involved.

We have arranged a consultation day at Milton Keynes, plus two ‘satellite’ consultation sessions – one in the north and one in the south – to which we are inviting members of the table tennis family to come and hear about the current plans, as well as share their experience and expertise on how we should approach the initiative, how it could benefit clubs and the types of fun activities that work well for this age group.

If you would like to be involved in generating ideas for this, please book a place by filling in the form at the bottom of this page.

The sessions are as follows:

Sunday September 23: Milton Keynes, 10.30am-3pm (lunch provided)

Saturday October 20: Ackworth School, Yorkshire, 1.30pm-4.30pm

Thursday October 25: SGS College, Bristol, 6.30-9.30pm

Greg Yarnall, Head of Development & Volunteering at Table Tennis England, said: “We believe the plans we are developing can help change the face of the sport for new young players and their parents, and also provide clubs, coaches, schools and leagues with the tools to deliver fun, engaging and marketable sessions.

“We want to share our initial plans for this exciting piece of work with the table tennis family, as well as taking on board their valuable experience and insight into how we make this as successful and easy to use as possible.”